Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

Attack of the 50 Foot Woman is the title of a motion picture which appeared in 1958, and starred Alison Hayes as Nancy Archer, a rich cheated wife whose encounter with aliens in the California desert results in her growing 50 feet tall. The movie belonged to a spate of size-changing films, which also included The Amazing Colossal Man and The Incredible Shrinking Man. Although these two movies were (by the standards of the day) rather impressive, the special effects in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman are generally considered to be of a poor standard.

The movie was remade in 1993 as Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman, starring Daryl Hannah in the leading role. Although it was a low-budget production, the 1990s special effects were sufficient to make Hannah a convincing giantess. One memorable scene showed her using a swimming pool for a bathtub, whilst talking to her normal-sized husband (played by Daniel Baldwin) on the poolside. The movie also had a strong feminist undercurrent; the heroine's "enlargement" is a metaphor for her emancipation from the men who previously had controlled her life.

In 1995, Fred Olen Ray produced a parody entitled Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfold, starring J.J.North and Tammy Parks. Beyond the basic premise, the plot had little in common with the original movie, being concerned with the side-effects of a beauty-enhancing formula on two ambitious girl models. The movie was deliberately farcical and made on an extremely low budget; the illusion of size-difference was achieved using forced perspective, unlike the earlier movies which used composite imaging.